Four Featherballs
by Asmith137
Summary: An invention sends the boys to their hardest mission yet...babysitting! When a ray turns the girls into hatchlings, how will the guys survive taking care of the toddler troublemakers?
1. Oh Baby

Inside the hidden HQ in a lab were two scientist penguins finishing up on their first project together. Kowalski and Flora were thrilled as they added the last necessary adjustments of their first invention they created together. It was suppose to make things younger, and they had been working on it for at least two weeks. It has been the girls first month here in New York, and Flora already loved it at the Central Park Zoo. It was a lot more fun then Antarctica, where all they got was bitter and cold winds and deadly predators.

"Just a twist here…" Flora muttered to herself.

"A screw here…" Kowalski murmured, also to himself.

"Done!" they both exclaimed. They two intelligent penguins high fived each other.

"Should we show the others?" Flora asked.

"Of course!" Kowalski answered as he tried to drag the machine out of the lab.

Flora tried to hold back the smile twitching at the corners of her beak. "Maybe we should bring them in here?" she suggested gently.

Kowalski stopped what he was doing and turned red from embarrassment. "Right," he coughed.

Flora giggled and went to get everyone while Kowalski started to set up the machine for their presentation. She came back in with everyone, explaining that they had a new invention to show them as she ushered them inside, closing the door behind them. She stopped her friends after they all entered the lab. Flora couldn't help but give Kowalski an excited glance, which he returned.

"So, what's this suppose to do?" Amber and Skipper both asked.

"It'll make things younger," Flora responded with pride in her tone for helping to create such a machine.

Skipper didn't look impressed. "Kowalski, didn't you make something like that?" he asked.

"No, it was suppose to turn food into a younger, fresher state. It may be the same thing, but I want to see what this baby can do!" Kowalski explained.

"So who will be a test subject?" Flora questioned.

Everybody turned their gazes to Madison and Rico.

"No way!" Rico grunted out. Madison crossed her flippers over her chest and stubbornly shook her head. They did not want to be the test subjects of the latest invention that was inevitably going to explode. At least, that's what they expected. It was a pattern, really.

Flora put on puppy dog eyes. "Come on, please," she pleaded. Rico and Madison groaned.

"Fine," Rico grunted reluctantly. Madison shrugged her shoulders, willing to do it if Rico would. The two penguins waddled in front of the machine with little to no enthusiasm.

"So, we push this button, and we'll see if it turns them younger," Flora and Kowalski explained simply for once in their lives.

"Ready?" Kowalski asked. Rico and Madison nodded in response. Kowalski grinned, pushed the button and the ray began to power up. The two test subjects stared at the ray with nervousness. The machine shot its ray but it only hit Madison. Strange enough; the ray bounced off of her and hit Sara too. The young bird was flung into a box, along with Madison.

"Is that supposed to happen?" Skipper hollered, taking cover under a work table with Private.

"No it's not-" Flora gasped as the ray bounced off and hit her. She was sent flying into a pile of scrap metal.

"Flora!" Kowalski shouted worriedly. He started his way over to her but soon ran away, screaming, when a ray almost hit him.

Amber tried to doge it, but it her square in the chest that sent her flying into the machine. The machine broke and crumbled on top of her. The ray had finally stopped its destruction, which left the male penguins safe. They slowly came out of their hiding spots and looked around cautiously.

"Sara?" Private called out hesitantly. There was no response.

"Flora, Madison?" Kowalski called out.

Skipper waddled to the pile of wreckage of the destroyed machine and started throwing the metal aside, so he could get to Amber. He couldn't find her and began to get worried himself. "I can't find Amber," Skipper growled. Sure, they might not be on the best of terms, at the time, but he had to admit that he did care for the silver bird.

"Maybe she-" Private stopped as he started to hear some kind of wailing. "What is that?"

Skipper looked back down at the wreck when he realized the sound was coming from there. He shifted through the metal again and gaped when he saw a baby penguin, a silver baby penguin to be exact. "Kowalski…" Skipper started.

"Yes?" Kowalski drawled out hesitantly.

Skipper took the young hatchling and turned back to his team. "I think your invention works." He held out Amber, who started giggling. The guys let out 'awes'.

"She looks so cute!" Private exclaimed.

"Boys, find the other girls," Skipper ordered.

The penguins immediately went looking at the areas they saw the girls slam into.

Kowalski pushed aside the scrap metal and almost instantly found his fellow scientist. "I found Flora." The strategist picked up the brown hatchling and held her daisy flower in his other flipper.

"Madison and Sara too," Private called out. He pulled out the two hatchlings that were sitting in Madison's hat.

Skipper eyed the hatchlings critically for a moment, ignoring and holding Amber as she tried to scramble out of his flippers. "Can we turn them back?" he asked his second in charge, faint annoyance lining his tone.

"I'm afraid not Skipper. At least, not now. The machine is destroyed, and it had taken me two weeks to make it with Flora here." Kowalski tickled the cute brown penguin. The little hatchling giggled and looked up at him with her big brown eyes. "And that was with her help."

"Well, we can't have them like this for at least two weeks," Skipper mumbled as Amber stopped squirming and started swatting at his beak.

"I dunno Skippah," Private began to argue. "They're really cute." The young bird smiled as Sara began to suck on her flipper. Madison was just looking around curiously in her hat and tried to escape, but Rico picked her up so she wouldn't fall out of the hat. He couldn't help but 'coochie-coo' her. Honestly, these baby chicks were drop-dead adorable!

Skipper shook his head at the private. "Cute or not; we can't keep them this way."

"Uh huh." Rico nodded in agreement, looking up.

The male penguins took the girl hatchlings out of the lab, so they wouldn't hurt themselves. They set them down and watched them interact. The sight was so cute that even Skipper said aw.

Amber tried to waddle to the other girls but fell over. Sara was just rocking back and forth, still sucking her flipper and coating it with saliva. Flora looked like she was examining the room with large eyes, while Madison just stared at everything curiously, attempting to touch whatever she could. It was going fine till one of the penguins started crying. It was Amber.

"How do you make it stop?" Skipper asked over the cries as he tried to block out the noise with his flippers.

"I think she wants food," Private answered.

Rico ran over to their table, took a fish and ran back. He put it in front of Amber, who stopped crying and stared at it curiously. She crawled up to the fish and tried to take a bite of it. She started chocking which led to Skipper patting her back so she'd cough it out. It only made her cry again, only louder. He picked her up and desperately tried to shush her, which honestly didn't help.

"Baby penguins will only eat regurgitated fish!" Kowalski yelled over Amber's crying. He then said quickly, "One, two, three not it!"

"Not it!" Private shouted.

"Not it!" Rico wheezed.

Skipper cursed under his breath. "C'mon!" he groaned.

"Please do it Skippah," Private begged.

Skipper groaned and sat Amber back down. "Fine. Good thing I had some fish earlier," he mumbled. He began to gag to try and get the fish up from his throat. The guys grimaced and looked away as Skipper fed Amber.

Amber stopped crying and gave a cute smile at Skipper. "Dada." She crawled up to him and hugged him.

It made Skipper freeze, and he looked hesitantly at the silver hatchling. Skipper looked back at his team, and glared at them. "We're never going to speak of this," he told them. The guys didn't listen and awed at the sight. They were interrupted by the screeching of the fishbowl being pulled aside.

Julien jumped down and looked at the penguins. "Hello neighbors! I'm in the need of borrowing your-" Julien stopped abruptly as he noticed the little hatchlings. They all looked at him with immediate dislike in their eyes. "Oh they're just so cute!" Julien ran over and picked up the baby Flora.

Flora stared back at him with her large, chocolate brown eyes. They were replaced with fear instead of curiosity. Tears pricked her eyes, and she looked like she was about to cry, as her body started to shiver for the upcoming wailing. A sniffle and high-pitched whine started coming up from the back of her throat.

"Oh no," Skipper groaned.

Their attention was diverted when they heard some high pitched war cry. They looked down and saw Madison tackle Julien the best she could and was holding a large spoon like it was a club. How she got a spoon was beyond them but it was, for her at least, a lethal weapon. Julien dropped Flora, but Kowalski quickly caught her before she hit the floor.

"Why did the baby attack me?" Julien hollered. He immediately regretted it when Madison repeatedly whacked his chest with her spoon. Julien let out yelps of pain as she did. **(A/N: I would so love to see that in slow motion, it'd be so funny.)**

"Wow, even as a hatchling, she still doesn't like Julien," Kowalski laughed.

Julien tried to shave her away but she kept scrambling back on top. She seemed to take a sick enjoyment from his fear and faint pain. Seriously, spoons didn't hurt _that_ much...no they kind of did. The ring-tailed lemur kept shouting out for help but was only watched by the penguins', who looked very amused. Finally, he managed to get away, scrambled away from the violent hatchling and ran out of the HQ.

Madison raised the spoon up and released another high-pitched war cry. It stopped abruptly as she fell flat on her face and started to snore as she fell sleep. It didn't take long for the other hatchlings to fall asleep also in the flippers of the older penguins.

Private placed the girls in a bunk with Madison's hat and Flora's flower, covering them up with blanket. "What are we going to do now?" he whispered.

"Well, I should start working on the machine," Kowalski admitted. He quickly waddled into his lab, so he could start on reconstructing the machine.

"Nothing else we can do. Might as well watch some television," Skipper suggested.

Skipper, Private and Rico waddled to the TV and started watching one of Private's soaps while the hatchlings slept. Hopefully, they could go an hour without one of them screaming their heads off.

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><p><strong>I personally loved the thought of Madison beating Julien up with a spoon, especially if it was in slow motion. Please review. If nobody likes this story; I'll delete it.<strong>


	2. Diapers

**So far I got good feedback, so I will continue! For now at least. I didn't have many ideas on what to do next, so this came up.**

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><p>Little Amber started pushing around in the bunk which made Flora, who had been unfortunate to have the very edge of the bunk, fall off and land on her face. There was an immediate cry from her at the harsh wake up call. It ended up waking up the other hatchlings to, along with the older penguins. The bright side was that at least they had gotten six hours of sleep.<p>

"This is getting annoying," Skipper groaned.

Kowalski waddled to where Flora was and picked her up. He started tickling her to get her to stop crying. Her cries were immediately replaced with giggles. "At least it's easy to make them laugh," Kowalski chuckled. He continued to tickle the hatchling in his flippers till she looked fine. He looked down when he felt something at his feet.

It was the other hatchlings crawling around. Madison was holding onto one of his feathers and was tugging it slightly.

"That's kind of-AH!" Kowalski shrieked when Madison forcefully yanked one of his feathers out. "That hurts! It hurts so bad!" Kowalski ran around the HQ with Flora still in his flippers. Madison just played with her newly obtained feather and giggled in an almost sadistic way.

Rico went up to the little Madison and picked her up gently. Madison dropped the feather as he did so and looked at him curiously, staring. It was weird how a hatchlings eyes could bring such a vacant look. It was intimidating in a weird way. The blank look was soon turned into a scrunched up face. Madison started crying with made Rico yelp in surprise and nearly drop her. The other hatchlings began to cry too.

"I think they're hungry again," Private announced and looked at Skipper with a hopeful smile.

Skipper noticed this and shook his head and flippers. "Well, I'm not going to feed all of them! Boys Operation: Feed the Cry Baby's, is a go!" Skipper ordered. Everybody looked at him oddly. "Well they can't always be winners, now just feed them already."

Rico looked at the crying Madison and groaned. He sat her down and regurgitated fish into her beak. She licked her beak afterwards and burped, which made Rico laugh. The psychopath decided then that she could be just as fun and cute as she had been before. He picked her up and went to the corner of the room and decided to test that theory with a set of toy racecars.

Kowalski, Skipper and Private reluctantly did the same to the other hatchlings but, just as they finished, Marlene came in.

"Aw those little things look so precious!" Marlene scooped up Sara and gave her a little hug. "Where'd you get them? Are they transfers or part of a rescue program?"

"That's Sara, Marlene," Kowalski told her. "We had a little invention screw up and now all the girls are hatchlings."

Marlene looked at Sara, shocked. Sara giggled and poked Marlene's nose. "You turned them into babies?" Marlene shrieked.

"Don't worry, they'll be back to normal soon," Skipper reassured. He mumbled, "In at least two weeks..."

Marlene cringed. "Well, in that case, you should put diapers on them."

"Diapers?" Private questioned.

Marlene gave them a bitter-sweet grin. "Well they're babies, so you don't want them _going_ all over your floor do you?"

Skipper scowled. "No way would I let that happen."

"Then you need to give them diapers." Marlene handed Sara to Skipper. "I'll see you later. I don't want to see what happens when you try to put diapers on them." With that said, Marlene left. She didn't want to be involved anymore in that then what was necessary.

"Kowalski?" Skipper asked. Kowalski already knew what he meant and whipped out a diaper bag. "How did you obtain that solider?"

"Uh…" Kowalski looked rather flustered. "Remember that baby we had saved? Well I had taken this, so if the situation ever came up we'd be ready."

Skipper rolled his eyes but handed Sara to Kowalski. "Better start putting those on them then."

Kowalski did a double take. "Why do I have to do it?"

"Because you're the science guy."

"What does that have to do with any of this?"

"Just do it Kowalski," Skipper ordered. "Besides, it's your fault we're in this mess." He waddled away with Private and Rico to the TV after they dropped the other hatchlings near the strategist's feet.

Kowalski reluctantly started putting a diaper on Sara. It was easy, so he went for Flora next. It was just as easy, but then he went to get Amber. She wasn't there and neither was Madison. "Where did they go?" Kowalski mumbled. He looked around worriedly.

"Everything alright there, Kowalski?" Skipper asked from the television.

"Everything is fine Skipper," Kowalski answered back nervously. He finally caught sight of Amber. She was playing with one of Rico's knifes. "Don't play with that!" Kowalski quickly took the knife away and picked up the silver hatchling. "You shouldn't be playing with that." Kowalski sat the knife back down on the table and attempted to put a diaper on Amber. The baby squirmed and kept biting his flipper. Kowalski let out a yelp of pain. "You are not making this easy!"

After a while he finally got it on Amber, but he was left with a bleeding flipper. Yeah it was that bad. He started his search for Madison once he sat Amber next to Flora and Sara. The hatchlings were playing with one of Private's lunacorn plushies. He looked around cautiously, knowing Madison was unpredictable even as a hatchling. He went toward the area where the fridge was and immediately saw Madison with a frying pan.

"Uh oh," Kowalski muttered.

Madison looked up at him and gave him a weird looking grin.

Kowalski looked at her and put his flipper out. "Just hand over the frying pan and no one will get hurt."

Madison frowned at him but then suddenly smiled. She took the pan and looked like she was handing it to him.

Kowalski smiled and went to grab it but was instead smacked on the head with it. "OW!" Kowalski clutched his head. "Except me apparently!" Madison giggled and attempted to smack him again. Kowalski caught the pan and took it from her grasp. Madison whined and tried to get it back. "No more frying pans for you!"

Kowalski quickly took Madison and tried to put a diaper on her. She was easier then Amber, but she didn't seem to like wearing a diaper much.

"Diaper mission complete, Skipper." Kowalski dizzily saluted before falling over and leaving Madison to poke him.

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><p><strong>Poor Kowalski. Ah well, what are you going to do? Please review. Again, I'll delete if no one likes.<strong>


	3. Isn't That Cute

It was a generally nice day in the Central Park Zoo. Visitors came by slowly, though there weren't many of them, and it was pleasantly sunny. Enough where you would want to lay out and soak the rays. All in all, it was a relaxing day. Marlene was sunbathing; the lemurs were partying, and Joey was beating the crud out of whoever dared to come into his habitat. The penguins, however, were a different story.

Kowalski and Private were trying to cover up for the other penguins, since they were currently in the HQ, taking a break from their babysitting. They were trying to distract Alice and keep the suspicion level low. It was difficult since there were only two of them when there needed to be eight penguins. Back in the HQ, it was much simpler.

Amber, Flora and Sara were watching something on TV, since Skipper and Rico didn't want to deal with all of them at the moment. Television was the perfect way to distract them, they quickly found out. Skipper was currently getting his fish coffee ready and held the latest newspaper under his flipper, looking at the limited amount of pictures. On the other side of the underground HQ was Rico, who was trying to entertain himself and Madison.

"Come here." Rico gestured for Madison to waddle over. She did so but ended up falling over. "Aw…" Rico cooed. He may be a tough bird, just like Skipper, but seeing a hatchling just made him melt. How could you resist such cuteness?

"Rico, don't go soft on me soldier." Skipper scowled as he got his fish coffee ready for the day.

"Heh, sorry." Rico rubbed the back of his head sheepishly but soon grinned when Madison had gotten back up, staring at him with big round eyes. "Aw…" He watched patiently as she waddled up to him and, before he could react, she yanked some of his chest feathers out. "OW!"

"Ha! Not so cute now is she?" Skipper laughed.

Rico grumbled to himself and watched Madison play with her newly obtained feathers. She twirled them in her flippers and would occasionally look up at Rico, making some weird squeaking sounds. Rico looked at her oddly. He had no idea what she wanted, or why she was obsessed with ripping out their feathers. It had happened at least ten times in the past three days she had been hatchlings with the other girls.

Kowalski and Private soon jumped down into the HQ after a minute or two.

"That was exhausting," Kowalski groaned and cracked his back. "It's much harder then you would think to fill in for six other penguins!"

"Stop your complaining," Skipper ordered. "It's not any easier around here."

Kowalski raised a non-existent brow. "Really?" He flicked his eyes to the chicks watching TV. Skipper ignored him.

Private looked at the hatchlings then back at Skipper. "Did we miss anything?" he asked curiously.

"Nothing but the usual," Skipper responded casually.

Kowalski inquired, "Ah, so Madison has obtained some new feathers, am I correct?"

"Yeah," Rico grunted. He looked at Madison when she got close to him and visibly flinched. She plucked another feather, but Rico only winced at the pain. The three penguins laughed, much to his annoyance. He growled angrily at them. What was so funny about loosing feathers?

"Sorry Rico but it's just so funny!" Private laughed.

Rico shook his head and denied, "Not funny!"

Once the three penguins calmed down Kowalski approached Rico.

"I require some assistance for the invention, and I need- Sweet Galileo!" Kowalski shrieked in pain. He rubbed his tail feathers and looked behind himself. Madison was, of course, playing with his tail feathers. "Why am I not surprised?"

It was Rico's turn to laugh now. _Now_ he understood what was so funny about it.

Kowalski glared and said, "It's really not that funny."

"Funny!" Rico laughed.

"No it's not!" Kowalski looked up at his leader when Rico continued to laugh and whined, "Skipper"

"Will you two calm down," Skipper ordered sternly and took a sip of his coffee. "You're scaring the girls."

They looked down at the baby penguins, and they were indeed scared. Well Flora and Sara were. Amber looked rather annoyed while Madison just had a blank look on her face, like usual.

"My apologies Skipper," Kowalski apologized.

"Yup." Rico nodded his head. Honestly, he didn't mean it but would say it just to please his commanding officer.

Skipper dismissed this. "Just get working on that invention of yours, I don't want to deal with these hatchlings anymore!" he exclaimed, clearly irritated.

"Yes Skipper." Kowalski saluted. "Come on Rico, I require your assistance." He led the weapons expert into the lab, so they could work on the invention.

That just left Private and Skipper. Private shuffled his feet nervously. What to do? He turned his gaze from the ground to the pile of hatchlings. Amber was pushing Flora away since she was trying to reach Amber for some odd reason; Sara was watching with interest while sucking on her flipper and Madison was sucking on a fish tail.

"Don't have that in your mouth!" Private ran over and ripped the fish out of Madison's tiny beak. "You could've choked!" He was soon met with the pain of Madison biting his flipper. He yelped and shook her off. She flopped onto the ground and, like nothing happened, crawled away.

Private watched her with a disturbed expression before turning his gaze to Skipper. "Is something wrong with her?" he asked his leader.

"Private, by now you should know there _IS_ something wrong with her," Skipper chuckled.

"Well, that's true," Private murmured. His little frown turned into a wide smile once he saw little Sara. "Hello there."

Sara looked up at him and smiled back. She raised her flippers up, a sign that she wanted to be picked up.

Private gleefully complied and picked her up. "Well, aren't you so cute!" Private tickled Sara, who was now being rocked in his flippers. Sara giggled and swatted at his flippers playfully.

"Private!" Skipper shouted to get his attention.

"Yes Skippah?"

"You're assigned night recon tonight."

"Do I have to do it tonight?" Private groaned.

"You can't just back out solider. Do recon, that's an order."

Private sighed in defeat, and sat Sara next to the other girls, who were playing with Rico's teddy bear now. "Right Skippah." Private saluted and took the teams binoculars. "Can I least bring snacks?"

"Sure, just nothing to sugary. The sugar plays with the paranoid mind," Skipper told him over his newspaper.

"Of course Skippah." Private went to his bunk and quickly pulled out a box of peanut butter winkies. He glanced at Skipper nervously before heading out through the First Prize entrance.

The commanding officer looked over his newspaper to see if Private was still there. Once he was sure Private was gone; he sat the newspaper down on the table and turned to watch the hatchlings. "Well if that isn't the cutest thing," he sighed.

Things have been cuter.

Amber was giving the teddy bear a headlock; Madison had managed to rip a hole in the toys back and was gnawing on its arms; Flora had taken the stuffing from the hole and was examining it, and Sara was just cuddling it.

"Wonder how Kowalski is progressing…" Skipper murmured to himself thoughtfully.

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><p>"Screwdriver," Kowalski ordered. Rico regurgitated a screwdriver that was covered up in his gut contents onto Kowalski's outstretched flipper. The strategist grimaced at the slime covered screwdriver as the watery like substance dripped onto the floor and trailed down his flipper. "You did that on purpose didn't you?"<p>

Rico resisted a snicker. "Yup," he chuckled.

"That's not funny." Kowalski glared.

Rico attempted to contain his laughter and was able to spit out, "Not funny" before he busted out laughing at Kowalski's expression.

Kowalski glared more firmly at the weapons expert. "At this rate; we'll never get this done!"

Rico finally controlled his laughter and shrugged sheepishly at Kowalski. "Sorry."

Kowalski sighed. "Just give me towel."

Rico complied and regurgitated a slimly towel into Kowalski's face.

"Rico!"

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><p>"Hey, stop doing that!" Skipper was getting increasingly aggravated that Amber kept hugging him and saying 'dada'.<p>

"Dada!" Sara whined as she crawled around. Skipper was guessing she was looking for Private.

Skipper clutched his head in annoyance at everything that was happening. "Ow!" he yelled in pain. His tail feathers had been pulled out by an overly curious Madison. Skipper turned around and scolded the hatchling. "What's with you and pulling out our feathers?"

Madison only giggled and twirled the feathers in her miniature flippers. It would have been cute if hadn't been his own tail feathers.

Skipper's glare hardened when Flora tried to take the feathers away from Madison. They ended up having a tug of war. "Kowalski!" Skipper barked.

Kowalski's head immediately poked out from his lab door, along with Rico's. "Yes Skipper?" Kowalski addressed.

"When will that invention of yours be done?" Skipper asked with exasperation, slumping, while Amber climbed on his flipper. Behind him, Sara was crawling around to look for the penguin that was not there and Madison and Flora were playing an aggressive looking tug of war with his feathers.

Kowalski thought for a moment. "Um…hard to say. But at the rate we're going at, possibly a month."

Skipper let out an aggravated sigh. "Well make it quick! I can't handle losing so many feathers."

As if to emphasize his point; Madison ripped out some more of his chest feathers. Skipper let out a painful yelp, which caused Madison to laugh. Rico did the same and Kowalski was trying to hold back his own laughter.

"Get to work!" Skipper ordered. The two taller penguins stopped laughing and ducked back into the lab.

"Hurt," Amber murmured in a somewhat sympathetic voice.

Skipper picked the hatchling up and narrowed his eyes slightly at her. "I don't do pain," he told her sternly. This earned a little giggle from the silver baby penguin. He sat her back down and went back to his newspaper and fish coffee. He downed the last of his coffee as he looked at the newspaper. His eyes slowly grew in size as he skimmed threw it. "NO!" He slammed his forehead against the table.

Kowalski and Rico came out and looked at him in concern. "Skipper, are you okay?" Kowalski asked, concerned.

Skipper took his head off of the table and stared at the two taller birds. "No, I'm not Kowalski! Look at this!" Skipper held up the newspaper in front of the scientists face.

Kowalski arched a brow. "Kitten is rescued by monkey that was hired at the fire stations? They'll do anything for extra help or thumbs these days," he sighed and shook his head disapprovingly.

Skipper looked at him quizzically and flipped the newspaper around. "Not that, this!"

Kowalski stared at the paper for a moment. "This shows a hippie shaking hands with the president. Your point?"

"Hippie!" Rico exclaimed.

"Exactly!" Skipper's eye started twitching uncontrollably. "It's the end of the world!" He threw the newspaper onto the ground and started yelling at the hatchlings about 'never trusting hippies'. Something about corruptions and moon beams.

Rico looked at Kowalski. "Weird."

Kowalski shook his head disapprovingly at his leader. "What are we going to do with you Skipper?"

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><p><strong>Sorry for the long wait. I hoped you liked the chapter though.<strong>

****Still positive reviews so I'll continue. I'm actually not so sure about this story, but all of you who have reviewed help me feel a lot more confident. So, if you've reviewed this story, thank you very much! On a side note, most of my reviews for chapter two had 'poor Kowalski' somewhere in there. I'm glad you all love Kowalski. Please review!****


	4. They Still Got It

**I seriously appreciate all the reviews I've gotten. I won't delete it because of that, for now at least. Hope ya people like this one. **

**Disclaimer: I thought I should do this, cause well...you know. Don't own POM no matter how much I wish I did, and if I did the world would explode into a million pieces. I only own my OC's and this story. Speaking of which, enjoy the chapter!**

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><p>It has been a week since the girls have been hatchlings and it was getting more interesting every day. The girls were improving in their speech already, except for Madison, who didn't speak at all. They were also more aware of everything and were more physically stronger then before. This said a lot, since they could already hold a heavy frying pain and smack it around. Kowalski, of course, found this out multiple times when they made the mistake of leaving Madison alone around the fridge.<p>

Kowalski was currently in his lab, working on his invention. Skipper was getting very impatient and was putting a lot of stress on the scientist as of late. It wasn't helping him with the lack of sleep he already had from working on it endlessly.

Kowalski looked up when he noticed the door had been pushed aside slightly. He sighed exasperatedly when he saw it was Flora crawling in. He looked at the pile of metal in front of him and muttered, "Not now," under his breath. The strategist looked back up and was rather surprised that Flora was gone already. "I wonder…" he trailed off. He shook it off and went back to the metal in front of him. He let out a startled yelp when he saw Flora sitting there.

"Walski!" Flora giggled and stretched out her flippers.

Kowalski couldn't help but smile at her voice. "Hey there…" he cooed. He picked her up and tickled her stomach, something he found out that she liked a lot. Just as he assumed, Flora started giggling and laughing. Kowalski drew his face closer to here and made cooing sounds with a large grin. He smiled wider when she held onto his beak.

"Walski," Flora giggled out again.

Kowalski chuckled. "Yes Walski." He put her back down, much to his and her disappointment.

"Up!" Flora cried and held a tiny frown as she lifted her flippers up.

Kowalski's smile vanished, and he sighed at the baby penguin. "Sorry, but I need to get to work on this," he explained to her reluctantly.

Flora seemed to understand. "Help?" she asked in her baby voice.

"You can't really help me here." Kowalski shook his head. He wished Flora was able to help him though. It would make the progress of the machine go by much faster and maybe he could squeeze in a couple minutes of rest too. His eyes were already rimmed red from the lack of rest and he wasn't sure how much longer he could go on without burning out.

"Can help!" Flora squeaked. She stumbled over to his notebook and pencil and started scribbling something over it.

"Flora, no!" Kowalski gasped. He took the notebook which made tears start to form in the hatchlings eyes. Kowalski scolded her. "You can't just-" he stopped himself when he noticed something. He looked closely at the notebook and gaped at what he saw.

In a matter of seconds, Flora had finished the equations he needed for an invention. Sure, it might not have been for the invention he was working on right now, but she had done the equations for his teleportation device. "How did you-?" He looked up from the notebook and started panicking when he saw silent streams of tears coming down the brown hatchlings face.

"I'm so sorry Flora! I didn't mean to make you cry!" Kowalski started rambling on and on about how sorry he was. He stopped himself when he realized that she probably didn't follow anything he had been saying.

There was a moment of silence before Flora looked back up at him.

"It's ok…" Flora mumbled.

Kowalski sighed in relief. She was still rather intelligent for a baby. Why hadn't he noticed this before? "Would you still like to help me?" Kowalski asked hesitantly.

Flora smiled warmly at him and squealed, "Sure!"

Kowalski let out a breath of relief and wiped away the stray tears on the hatchling's face. "I suppose you still got it." He smiled.

* * *

><p>"Private! What if that was a real ninja? You would be dead and bleeding everywhere, with your guts!" Skipper scolded the private.<p>

Private grimaced at that mental image. He had been knocked over when a bowling pin crashed at his side during training. He was pretty sure that his leader had thrown it at him to test his reflexes. Skipper had decided to take this specific quick training session for him to test his reflexes actually.

They had taken Amber up with them. Well, they were practically forced to when she stayed attached to Skipper. She was literally attached to him and just wouldn't let go. She was still hanging loosely at his side, watching the training with a large grin.

Private got up from the ground and saluted. "Right Skippah. Won't let it happen again."

"Make sure it doesn't." Skipper nodded. "You're dismissed for now."

Private made no hesitation to go back down the fishbowl entrance.

Skipper looked down at his side and raised a brow when he noticed the silver penguin was missing. He looked around and sighed in an aggravated way when he spotted the hatchling. She was next to a standing bowling pin and was glaring at it.

"Hi-ya!" Amber let out a war cry and kicked the pin, sending it flying across the habitat. It landed into the water and floated in the pool. She gave her own baby smirk and got in a fighting stance that looked similar to Private's. "More!"

Skipper looked at the hatchling, rather surprised, but that didn't stop him from waddling up to the hyped up chick. "You want to do some training?" he asked with a smirk.

Amber gave an excited squeak and nodded her head.

"Well let's see here…" Skipper rubbed the bottom of his beak thoughtfully and planned out how he would set up the habitat with ninja bowling pins. He smirked when he finally pictured it out and started setting up the pins.

When he was done; he marveled at his work. The perfect set up for a hatchling like Amber. "Alright." He looked over at the excited hatchling next to him. She looked a lot like Rico when you offered him fish. "You ready?"

"Yes!" Amber squealed.

It was hard to imagine that this hatchling had turned into the tough penguin he knew. "Alright then and…GO!"

Amber immediately jumped over and kicked a bowling pin away. She smacked her body against another one, and it knocked over two other bowling pins in the process. She ran over to another and jumped up in the air till she was a foot high up and punched the pin. It was sent spiraling into the water. She landed on the ground with a soft thump and did a back flip to another pin. She attacked it with a swift kick and, just like the others; it was sent into the water. She stared at the last pin and got into a fighting stance. She jumped over to it and picked it up.

Skipper watched with interest as the hatchling lifted the much heavier bowling pin and hurled it into the water. Skipper clapped in approval. "Not bad," he praised.

Amber giggled and waddled slowly up to him. "Dada." She hugged him and buried her face in his chest feathers.

Skipper felt extremely embarrassed, but he managed to say, "Y-you still got it."

* * *

><p>Private was relieved to be back in the HQ and not have to go through training anymore. He was currently sitting at the table, and he had been there since he had gone back down. He was watching Rico play with Madison, and he had to admit that it was rather cute. He was showing her firecrackers, which seemed to entertain the little bundle of feathers.<p>

Private looked down when he felt a tug on his feathers. He smiled happily when he realized it was Sara. She was looking up at him with her large teal eyes.

"Hi!" she piped up cheerfully in her squeaky baby like voice.

"Hello Sara," Private greeted just as cheerfully. He picked her up and started to rock her in his flippers. She seemed to have liked that, so he did it on a regular basis, much to the annoyance and anger of Skipper.

"Lunacorn?" she asked.

Private smiled widely. He got up from his concrete seat and went to his bunk, Sara still in his flippers. He placed her in his bunk and pulled out his familiar purple lunacorn from under his pillow.

Sara gave a wide cheerful smile and rocked back and forth, sucking on her flipper.

Private smiled at the sight. It was adorable when she did that in his opinion. He reached over to her and did what Kowalski did with Flora. He tickled Sara, which caused her to have a giggle fit. She sprawled out on the bunk and continued to giggle and laugh as Private tickled her stomach.

"You're so cute!" Private cooed. He stopped when Sara managed to grab his flipper. She continued to hold it as she jumped out of the bunk. Now the last thing he expected was to be dragged by a hatchling to the TV area but it happened anyway.

Private stared at the ceiling for a bit in shock, but he could hear Rico's laughter echoing throughout the room along with Madison's. He turned his head, so he could see the hatchling that had dragged him.

"How on earth could you do that?" he asked disbelievingly. It wasn't much use since she was a baby, and he was only earned a confused look from the baby penguin.

"Lunacorn?" Sara took the lunacorn from his flipper, gave it a good squeeze and continued to watch the Lunacorns.

Private sighed but smiled at Sara anyway. "You still got it, but I just wish you would give me a warning next time."

* * *

><p>Rico was enjoying Madison as a hatchling, but he missed the older Madison. As a baby; she couldn't do as much but he was still able to show her all his abilities. It entertained her just as much as it had before the unfortunate but cute incident.<p>

Rico laughed at her expression as he juggled a bunch of cutting knives. She looked completely awed. She clapped her flippers, obviously asking for more. Rico hacked up some firecrackers and started pulling the strings. Madison would let out squeals of joy as the streamers fell on top of her. She ended up sneezing and Rico let out a low chuckle.

Rico spared a quick glance at Private. He was watching The Lunacorns with Sara. She was rocking back and forth, sucking her flipper like usual, except she was holding Private's lunacorn this time. He turned his gaze up to the fishbowl as it slid away. He mentally groaned as Julien came in.

"Hello?" King Julien greeted rather hesitantly. "There will be no hitting this time, yes?" The king slowly blinked when he caught Madison's menacing stare. It was amazing on how intimidating a hatchling could be. "She will not be attacking me with a spoon this time, right?" Julien asked.

Rico shrugged. What happened to Julien wasn't his problem. He would actually enjoy it that he was sure of.

He glanced at the chick and watched expectantly as Madison crawled over to Julien. She looked generally harmless at the time. She looked up at Julien and purposely made her eyes go big and round, squeaking. It instantly made Julien melt.

"Aw…so cute!" Julien purred.

Madison rose her flippers up, signaling to be picked up. The only ones she would allow to pick her up was Rico and occasionally Private but never Skipper or Kowalski but Julien could care less as he picked up the hatchling.

"See? The baby is to be liking ME!" The last word was screamed and the reason? Well…Madison had some fur she could play with now and Julien had some missing hair on his face. "That is being mine!" Julien took the fur from her flipper, still holding the chick in his other hand. He should have just put her down, because then she took his crown. "Give me!" He tried to grab it but ended up dropping Madison to floor.

She landed with a painful smack, and Julien's crown fell next to her. Rico gasped in horror when she didn't move. He ran up to her and picked her up. He was relieved when she blinked at him but, then again, moments like this never last.

Rico groaned when Madison's eyes started pricking with tears. All he really needed to do was distract her. With that thought in mind, the psychopath came up with an idea. "Here." He turned Madison around so she was facing Julien and brought her up to Julien's chest. Quick as a flash, she ripped a large chunk of fur from his chest.

"Ow!" Julien howled at the horrible pain. "Why does this accursed baby hate me?"

By now, all the penguins in the room were laughing. Julien bent to the ground, put his crown back on and, with the last bit of his dignity, raced up the hatch.

Rico brought Madison up to his chest and gently rocked her, so she would sleep. He didn't want to deal with the chick's troublesome actions anymore for today. He was in charge of feeding and changing the diapers earlier and he did NOT want to go through that again. It was a disaster.

But as he watched Madison slowly falling asleep, still holding Julien's fur; he couldn't help but think, _She's still got it._

* * *

><p><strong>Hope ya liked the chapter. Please review and since I've gotten positive feedback, I'll still continue. For now…If nobody likes; I'll delete my story. I have to keep reminding that for some reason. Well until next time, please review.<strong>


	5. Babysitter

**This is long over due, I know. I apologize but my computer is still experiencing problems. I'm lucky to have a quick chance to update one of my stories. I sincerely apologize, but I hope you still enjoy this late addition. Please review!**

* * *

><p>"Are you sure about this, Skippah?" Private asked his leader worriedly.<p>

Skipper nodded in response with four chicks following behind him in line as they walked to the otter habitat. "Marlene will take good care of them while we go find that extra part Kowalski needs for that machine that created this whole mess."

"What part?" Private asked, somewhat confused.

"I don't know." Skipper shrugged his shoulders, and shook his head. He never really understood science. "Some whatcha-mahoozit to reverse the effects of these four," he said and gestured to the four baby females, who were oblivious that they had been turned to a much younger age.

Private nodded his head in understanding. "I hope this won't be too much for Marlene."

"She can handle it," Skipper responded confidently. "Besides, I'm not about to let Ringtail take care of them after that...incident."

Private laughed and said, "But you were so cute."

"Cute and cuddly, Private," Skipper sighed. "But so are these four and they're not going to be a problem for our friend, Marlene." Skipper stopped in front of the wall that surrounded Marlene's habitat and turned to look at the hatchlings, which all four stumbled as they came to a sudden halt. "Behave for Marlene, " he ordered sternly. "Got it?"

"Yes daddy," Amber squeaked with a small salute. She had already picked back up on the commando operations they used to do. The other three hatchlings simply followed along and saluted in which Skipper nodded in approval, though his eye twitched when he heard the word 'daddy'. He picked up Amber and Flora, and gave Madison and Sara to Private.

With a nod from Skipper, the two flightless birds flipped into the habitat, going right over the pool of water. By luck, they happened to land right in front of the otter they were looking for. "Hello Marlene," Skipper and Private greeted.

Marlene jumped back in surprise. No matter how much they did that, she was never use to it. "Guys, ever heard of knocking?" she asked with annoyance

Skipper ignored Marlene's comment. "Today is your lucky day, Marlene."

"I won the lottery?" Marlene smirked.

Skipper frowned. "No." A smile reappeared on his face as he, and Private held up the chicks in her view. "You get to take care of these four!"

Marlene stared at him in exasperation with her arms crossed over her chest now.

Skipper narrowed his eyes at her. "C'mon Marlene. We need this one favor."

"Please Marlene? They are cute and cuddly, just as the penguin word!" Private held Sara and Madison closer to her for emphasis as well as Skipper did with Amber and Flora. Private also added, "They don't even wear diapers anymore so you don't have to worry about a mess. We already fed them before so you don't have to worry about it."

Marlene still didn't look convinced so Private upped the cuteness he was known for. "We need you to do this one favor for us. Please?" Private pleaded, and his eyes dilated to a large size as the bottom part of his beak quivered to make it all the more adorable.

Marlene finally caved in and smiled at the penguins. "Ok, I guess I can take care of them."

Skipper smirked at her, and laid Amber and Flora on the ground next to Marlene. "Fantastic. This penguin needs a break," Skipper sighed and patted his chest, grateful he wouldn't have his tail feathers plucked out for the day.

"Don't sweat it." Marlene waved her paw in a dismissive manner. "As long as they get back to normal." She looked at Private and asked, "Can I take those two off your flippers?" She pointed to Madison and Sara in indication.

Private suddenly felt protective but reluctantly handed Sara and Madison into Marlene's arms anyway despite that nagging feeling. "Make sure to feed them regularly. A-and they like to play with stuffed animals but don't forget to-"

"Relax, I got it," Marlene assured with a small smile. She looked down at the two avian babies in her furry arms just as Skipper warned, "Be careful." Marlene rolled her eyes at him. "I w-YOW!" she yelped and glared down at Madison, who was fiddling with her now ripped out whiskers. The hatchling giggled at the glare she received and blew a raspberry at her.

Skipper laughed. "Yeah, watch out for that one." He smirked while Private looked sympathetic. Marlene brought her glare up to Skipper which he reacted by rolling his eyes, "Oh relax, it'll grow back...I think. Lets go Private." Before she could retort; the two flightless birds were gone.

Marlene exhaled and put Sara and Madison on the floor. It was then that she noticed Amber and Flora were missing. "Oh no." She looked around and asked, "Do you know where those two went?" to Madison and Sara. Madison giggled and shook her head in a almost defiant way. Sara was sucking on her flipper and used the other to point to Marlene's cave. The otter sighed in relief, scooped up the two girls and quickly entered her cave.

Amber and Flora were having a scuffle on the floor for reasons unknown to the Asian otter. "No, no, no, no!" Marlene scolded, dropped Sara and Madison on a pillow and separated Amber from Flora. "No fighting."

"Fight!" Amber chanted excitedly and bounced up and down. Flora huffed, pouting, and turned her head away stubbornly from the silver baby penguin.

"No fight," Marlene ordered sternly. Amber whined as Flora stuck her tongue out at her. "Why do you even want to fight?" she asked.

Amber patted her down-feathered chest and stated proudly, "Commando."

"Oh really?" Marlene snorted, amused and put her paws on her hips.

"Yes!" Amber chirped, not noticing Marlene's disbelief and amusement.

"Bored!" Sara whined suddenly from the pillow she and Madison occupied. "Wanna play!"

Madison seemed to think of wrestling when someone said play. So she tackled Sara, as she often did with Rico. Though Sara didn't appreciate it considering she was shrieking for Madison to stop, which only encouraged the overly aggressive hatchling to get rougher and continue.

Marlene separated the two and looked at them both in exasperation. "No wrestling." She didn't want to have any of these chicks hurt, and she especially didn't want to deal with Sara wailing for three hours.

It was only a second till the words sunk into Madison's brain that she started to let out a high-pitched whine.

"No fun," Amber muttered and sat down as she pouted. "No fighting, no wrestling." She stuck her tongue out at Marlene and said, "You no fun!"

"What?" Marlene scoffed. "I'm loads of fun!"

Flora didn't look like she believed a word Marlene said. "Prove it," she said bluntly. Her tone and look made her seem like she knew, or at least felt, like she was more superior then Marlene would ever be. "Prove you can be fun," Flora restated. Her grammar and vocabulary surpassed the other chicks, and she took pride into it.

Marlene put her paws on her hips. "Alright then, what do you want me to do?"

The chicks exchanged devious looks.

***X*X*X*X*X*X***

"Not fun, not fun, not fun!" Marlene exclaimed and clung to a metal board she was sprawled out on as if her life depended on it, which it probably did.

Amber was holding a rope that was wrapped once around a tree in the habitat with it connected to the metal board that carried the four chicks and one terrified otter. The metal board itself was on Marlene's slide and changes had been made to the board, courtesy of Flora, so it would go faster and propel further.

"Fun," Amber giggled and smirked. "Ready?"

Flora and Sara were holding onto the board tightly, and they both cheered, "Ready!"

Madison's tongue lolled out of her beak as she nodded excitedly. Her body was shaking, more like vibrating, with anticipation.

"Here we go!" Amber cheered in a high pitched voice, that almost sounded ridiculous, and released the rope. She barely had enough time to grip onto Marlene's tail before they were quickly going down the slide. In a blink of a eye, they were propelled into the air and managed to get out of the otter habitat by sailing over the bars. Though it didn't go as far as they all had expected...

Next thing Marlene knew was that she was face planted on concrete with four unharmed baby penguins on her back.

Flora jumped off the otter, her young friends following suit, and exclaimed, "Again!" Madison was jumping up and down, silently asking for more. Sara was in some state of shock while Amber started to twirl around while chanting, "More!" as she often did.

Marlene waved her paws frantically when she managed to get back up on her hind legs. "Not again!" she exclaimed. No way was she going to go flying off that slide like that another time. Once was enough for her.

All four chicks slumped in disappointment. "Aw..."

Amber then pulled her girls into a huddle, which made Marlene feel as if they were plotting against her. They came out of the huddle a few moments later and approached Marlene. The otter expected kicks, a ambush maybe, but she didn't expect penguin irresistibility.

The young chicks eyes dilated to look pitiful but absolutely adorable. Their feathers seemed to fluff out, making them cuter and fluffier then ever. Their appearance was one that made you want to hug them like crazy. And just to add to all that; Amber, Flora, and Sara pleaded, "Pwwweeaasssee?" while Madison let out a cute puppy whine.

Marlene instantly caved in. "Alright..."

Immediate cries of joy rang out as the four tackled the Asian otter into a hug, and they ended up scrambling over her to get a good enough hold. Marlene couldn't help but laugh at the change of events.

"Thank you!" Sara cheered.

The little female penguins suddenly jumped off the otter and exchanged high fives the way they saw the older penguins do it. Amber looked at Marlene and exclaimed, "Go see Joey!"

There was a instant change to Marlene's mood. "Whoa, hold up there. We are not even going near that place!"

"Why not?" Amber whined and stomped her foot.

"Joey can be dangerous," Flora answered for Marlene in a matter-of-fact tone. "Species: Kangaroo," she began reciting everything she knew about the kangaroo from what she heard from Skipper and Kowalski and just common knowledge. "Attitude: temperamental, gender: male, and chance of survival from encounter...zero percent."

Marlene was glad at least one of them understood. "Which is why we are avoiding that habitat, ok?"

"Ok," Amber sighed while the others nodded in understanding. The silver hatchling lit up a little bit, making Marlene sense something bad was about to happen. "Won't go to Joey...go everywhere else!" It was in that instant that all four of the chicks zipped away in opposite directions like a bullet.

Marlene was right.

"Get back here!" she called out. She debated which way to go first and decided to go to the lemur habitat first. A sudden scream from that direction which caused her to run to the lemurs on all fours. Who knew what those chicks were doing?

* * *

><p>The scream belonged to Julien. He hadn't been hurt, yet, but he was terrified because Madison was clinging onto his tail, giggling the entire time he tried to get her off. It was amusing, seeing Julien run around in circles with Madison on top of the end of his ringed tail. To her, it was like a fun ride.<p>

Sara was at the smoothie bar and was sniffing one of the fruits, a mango to be exact. She bit out a large chunk and promptly gagged on it until Maurice noticed the commotion and patted her back to get Sara to spit it out. The chunk of the orange fruit was launched out of her beak and relief sunk in for both lemur and chick. But Julien screaming reminded him that there was still a issue at hand.

"Your Majesty, are you alright?" Maurice exclaimed with worry when he came to his king, who was still running in circles and still had Madison stuck to his tail. Sara giggled at the sight from Maurice's arms.

"Maurice!" Julien shouted and lifted his tail with only the tips of his fingers as if his tail were garbage at the moment. "Get this thing off of me," he commanded.

The pudgy lemur lightly put Sara down and tried to pull Madison off, but she was clinging on tight. Every pull became harder, making Julien wince and Madison whine and growl. With a final tug, Madison came off of the tail but had ripped out some white and black hairs from the tail, making two small bald spots on King Julien's long tail.

The self proclaimed king cried out in pain. "Maurice, that hurt! Make it go away!"

Madison giggled as she was placed onto the ground and watched Maurice pull Julien to a different area of the habitat. The mute hatchling threw the hairs up into the air and clapped as they fluttered everywhere like confetti. She spit out some fur that had entered her small beak and brushed off some that landed on her beak and head.

"Hello," Madison heard someone greet. She looked to the side and saw Mort and Sara. "Oh, you are a cute penguin!"

Sara did a babyish giggle and pulled Mort into a tight hug and cuddled up with him like she did with virtually every plush she came in contact with. Except that snake one. She had been gone in a flash and it took a hour to find out that she had been hiding. Skipper had been wondering why his pillow was so lumpy.

Their was a unexplainable feeling of envy to Madison as she crawled over and tugged on Mort's tail and tried to pull him towards her. She had always felt that she had to have whatever Sara had. So in this case, it was Mort.

Sara noticed Mort getting out of her grip and saw Madison slowly pulling him away with strain visible on her tiny face. Sara whined and pulled Mort's head in one direction. She thought Mort belonged to her, which was the same thought she had for every toy she had been exposed to.

Madison thought differently as she grunted and pulled in her direction by getting a better hold onto Mort's tail. This happened a lot. A tug of war over a plush between those two. Though it usually ended up without a head, leg, and/or tail in the end.

"Ow, ow, OW!" Mort exclaimed when Madison did a extra hard tug.

Marlene then came into the habitat then and was panting. "Come...on...give...me a...break," she wheezed and put her paws on her knees as she tried to get her breath back. Madison and Sara both slackened their grip and simply watched Marlene. The otter raised a paw up and panted, "One...second." After a few more moments, Marlene got back up and arched her back in a stretch.

Sara and Madison looked at each other and then started to pull Mort more forcefully then before, causing Mort to go through more pain.

The Asian otter rushed over and managed to get Sara to let go of Mort. This gave Madison the opportunity to hug Mort. It lasted only a second or two before she lost interest and let the mouse lemur scurry away.

"No!" Sara wailed pitifully like a child that never got what it wanted and extended her flipper out in Mort's direction in a vain attempt to get him back into her grasp.

Marlene sighed and picked up Madison. "Lets go find the others," she said in a exasperated tone. She exited the lemur habitat with Sara wailing, and Madison tugging on her ear to see if it would come off.

* * *

><p>Amber squealed in delight as she slid down Burt's trunk. "Again!" she cheered.<p>

Burt half-smiled, both amused and annoyed. "Alright, here we go again." He muttered under his breath, "for the fifty-sixth time..." The elephant wrapped his trunk around Amber's small form and raised her to his head. She promptly slid down his trunk and the process was repeated several times till Marlene arrived.

"Burt, help a friend out and give Amber to me," Marlene said tiredly.

"That's Amber?" Burt asked with surprise but continued the cycle of letting Amber slide down his trunk. "I thought it was a little bird from the park."

Marlene sighed as Madison kept tugging on her ear, and Sara trying to get out of her arm. "Yeah, another penguin incident."

"Oohh." The elephant then said, "Well I guess I will-" he paused and looked around. Amber had disappeared. "Hey, where'd she go?" Burt used his trunk to scratch his head in confusion.

Marlene shot her head in different directions but then saw the silver avian attempting to climb over a wall. "There!" Marlene pointed.

The silver chick whipped her head over with fear and surprise in her giant amber colored eyes. She suddenly shrieked, "Mouse!" and climbed over the rest of the wall with a wide grin.

"Mouse?" Burt hollered and started stomping everywhere in a vain attempt to find and escape the non-existent mouse. "Where, where?"

"Burt, watch out!" Marlene exclaimed from below with her eyes widening at the idea of being squished. Sara was crying, but Madison was laughing in a almost demonically. Marlene managed to escape Burt's stomping feet and raced to the same wall Amber had climbed. The issue was getting up there. Marlene then noticed a pile of stacked bags of peanuts nearby and smirked at her luck.

She jumped on the stacks and was able to flip into the habitat. It was a quick drop to the ground, and she landed on the ground unharmed. Marlene was surprised to see Bada and Bing lightly pushing the tire swing back and forth with Flora holding onto it.

"What are you guys doing?" Marlene asked briskly when she rushed over and skidded to a halt.

"We were just standing right over here when this little bird came along," Bada answered.

Bing added, "She's just so cute." He continued lightly pushing the tire swing with Bada pushing the other.

Flora seemed happy to just be rocked back and forth on the tire swing. She was laughing the entire time and caused Bada and Bing both to smile.

"Yeah, that's great guys," Marlene said sarcastically and held onto Madison and Sara tighter when they tried to escape. "One, can I have her back and two, have you see a little silver penguin around?"

"She's right over there," Bada answered and gestured to the bushes behind his back.

Bing looked reluctant. "Do you really have to take her back?"

"Yes," Marlene answered bluntly and pushed the bush apart with her foot.

Amber was half hidden under a bush, and her feet were scrambling around to either get into or out of the bush. Simply stated, she was stuck. "Help," Amber whimpered pitifully, her voice muffled from being under the bush.

Marlene dropped Madison and Sara, causing surprised squeals from both of them, and pulled Amber out of the bush. "No more funny business," she ordered and picked up a disoriented Madison and Sara again.

The silver penguin nodded solemnly and followed Marlene with her head hanging. _Humiliated,_ Amber thought in pity for herself.

Flora had been set on the ground and followed Marlene cheerfully. She seemed to be the only one smiling at the moment. "Bye bye!" Flora waved cutely which was followed by a yawn. Bada and Bing returned the wave, which made Flora smile.

And thus the five minute trek back to Marlene's habitat commenced without any problems. Sort of.

When Marlene came into her home, she was carrying the four chicks. All of them were exhausted and hadn't made it one minute before falling asleep. They looked so peaceful and cute that it caused Marlene to smile. Those four had caused much more trouble then they were worth. Were they that troublesome to their parents?

The female otter laid the chicks on a pillow that was really only a sack of popcorn kernels. They instinctively cuddled up against one another, even if it did look like awkward positions.

"Aw..." Marlene cooed. She stretched and yawned. She desperately needed sleep since all that running. Every step was like pounds of lead were strapped to her feet as she came to her bed. Marlene flopped herself onto it and instantly fell asleep.

* * *

><p>One hour. Marlene only had one hour of rest before she woke up to one of the chicks crying their hearts out. When the otter blinked her eyes open, the silver avian baby was in the middle of the makeshift cage, on the sack of popcorn, while the others were trying to block out the noise as they pressed themselves against the walls.<p>

"Marlene!" Amber wailed.

Said otter ran over to the hatchling and picked her up with some feathers fluttering down from Amber's body. "What is it?" she asked hastily while checking Amber over for injuries. Marlene's eyes were wide with fear, expecting the worse.

"I'm dying!" Amber wailed even louder and picked out some of her loose feathers with tiny tears trailing down her face. "Am I melting?"

Marlene paused for a minute, laid Amber back down and explained slowly, "You're not dying." She didn't know much about penguins, but she did know that this was natural for hatchlings to, at one point, lose their down feathers. "You're molting."

Amber sniffed back her tears and asked quietly, "I dying?"

Marlene shook her head, partly in amusement. "No, you are just loosing feathers." The look Amber gave her made her add, "It's natural and you will have prettier feathers when it's all over."

This perked Amber up considerably, and she jumped up and down in excitement, with more feathers fluttering onto the caves ground. "Yay, I'm molting!" she cheered enthusiastically. The hatchling ran to her friends, stumbling around, and started cheering, "I'm molting!"

"What's molting?" Sara questioned when she took removed her flippers from her head. Madison tilted her head to the side, just as clueless but as curious.

"Baby penguins loose their feathers," Flora explained and looked at Amber with envy. "Why do you get to molt first?"

Amber seemed to be proud of being the first one and puffed out her chest. "I'm older," she responded smugly.

Marlene laughed quietly and watched from a distance. The sudden sound of footsteps made her crane her neck to the direction of her cave entrance. She was surprised when she saw Rico, and Kowalski waddling over the rock and entering the cave.

Kowalski half grinned at the otter. "Greetings Marlene."

"Hey," Rico greeted also.

"Walski!" Flora exclaimed and stumbled over to the tall penguin. She hugged as much of Kowalski as possible with her tail feathers wiggling side to side quickly in happiness. Kowalski smiled fondly at her like a father would do to his own child. He bent over slightly and stroked her back.

"Yay!" Amber and Sara suddenly cheered as they, and Madison ran to Rico and Kowalski with Marlene side stepping so they could pass by. "Uncle Rico, uncle Kowalski," Sara giggled and tried to hug both but her flippers were far too small to accomplish such a task.

Amber jumped up and down in excitement. "Look, look, molting!" She showed her stray feathers proudly.

Kowalski looked intrigued. "Really?" He picked her up and examined Amber quickly. _That narrows down her current age to_...he trailed off in his mind as he sat Amber back down.

Flora hadn't let go of Kowalski and asked, "Where did you go?"

Kowalski picked up Flora and smiled at her as he tickled her stomach briefly. "I was out getting some parts for a project," he answered. "It was harder then you think. There was getting a ride, finding the right store, disposing of the guards, getting snacks-"

"What does snacks have to do with it?" Marlene interrupted.

This went unnoticed by Kowalski. "-avoiding various small children, getting stomped on, brief encounter with Officer X who is now working at a day care..." Kowalski trailed off when he saw Marlene's expression. "All wrapped up, it was a long and excruciating mission, but I got most of the parts for the machine now."

"Alright, alright," Marlene said and smiled fondly. "Adorable reunion you all just had but are you guys going to take the bunch back to your habitat?"

The strategist nodded. "Yes we are. Were they trouble for you?" he asked, and picked Sara and Flora up into his flippers.

Brief memories of the day flashed before Marlene's eyes. "No, not at all," she said dismissively.

Kowalski didn't look like he believed a single word she just said. "Then would you mind chick sitting again for us?" he asked slyly and exchanged a look with Rico. "Tomorrow perhaps?"

"No!" Marlene exclaimed quickly while waving her paws frantically.

Both Kowalski and Rico exchanged sly smirks. "We didn't think so," Kowalski admitted while Rico picked Amber and Madison up. "Thanks for the favor Marlene; we owe you one," he said as he exited the habitat with Rico.

_More like you owe me four,_ Marlene thought in bitter amusement.

"Bye bye Marlene!" Amber, Sara, and Flora waved in unison with Madison blowing another raspberry followed by a giggle she tried to stifle by putting her flippers over her beak in a adorable fashion.

"Never again," Marlene muttered with a weak smile and waved goodbye to them, Rico, and Kowalski. She then entered her messy cave and flopped onto her makeshift bed to get some well deserved rest.


End file.
